


Embroidered Hopes

by SilverP



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Embroidery, Hurt/Comfort, Isolation, Light Angst, Sewing, Stuffed Toys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23276389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverP/pseuds/SilverP
Summary: Basically, the Guardians are helping Jack move in to North's Workshop, and something happens to shatter all of their hearts. FYI, I'm convinced Jack died somewhere between fourteen and seventeen, but he's sixteen in this.
Relationships: E. Aster Bunnymund & Jack Frost, Jack Frost & Nicholas St. North, Jack Frost & Sanderson Mansnoozie, Jack Frost & Toothiana
Comments: 3
Kudos: 365





	Embroidered Hopes

"So, would you like room?" North boomed in that way of his, the one that made you instinctively want to grin. It had been just under a month since Pitch(Jack had taken to referring to events in his life in three ways: Before Frosting(BF), Before Pitch(BP), and After Acceptance(AA). North laughed upon hearing this, Tooth wasn't paying attention, Bunny missed the point, and Sandy flinched at the last one, recalling just how awful the spirits of the world had been to Jack for three centuries. Jack, being Jack, couldn't bear to see one of his friends upset so gave an elf sugar. That was the wrong choice--the Workshop almost burned down, but Sandy forgot completely about what he was thinking of in the hubbub of five Guardians and fifteen or so yeti, all with fire extinguishers, chasing down twenty three flaming elves.), and the Guardians had found out that Jack lived in the trees around his lake, and the first time he'd slept in a proper bed in three centuries was when he was recuperating from battling Pitch. That leads us to here; all four original Guardians helping their newest member pull his amassed belongings down from the trees.

"Baby Tooth, 'cmere!" Jack called, the little faerie flitting to take the delicate silver necklace with snowflake cut diamond pendant from him and ferry it down to Tooth.

"Oh, Jack, this is lovely! Where did you get it?" the fae queen exclaimed, fluttering excitedly over the necklace.

"There was an old Athabaskan lady in Alaska who could see spirits without believing in them. She was absolutely incredible, and one of the things she liked to do was point out the lovebirds who needed a push in the right direction to me and I'd help her out. She and I would spend about two weeks a year together for around a decade, just matchmaking. Around my seventh year going there, she gave me the necklace and said 'You're doing great kiddo, and kiddos who help senile old ladies out get pretty things.' The 'senile old lady' bit was an inside joke of ours-when we first met, a rude young man called her that and I dumped a pile of snow on his head." Jack laughed at the memory, remembering the face of the teen who hadn't put his parka hood up and the sheer delight on the woman's face. 

"Sounds like nice woman." North chortled. 

"Yeah, she was great. A young soul, and absolutely loves matchmaking. She became a spirit after a little over a decade of me knowing her. Anybody here met the Cupid who wanders around Alaska and bits of Canada?" Sandy raised his hand."That's her!" Jack laughed at the shock on their faces.

  
"Hey, what're these?" Tooth asked, a collection of four handmade stuffed creatures in her arms.

  
"Oh.. that's kind of embarrassing actually." Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

  
"What is it mate? I won't laugh...much!" Bunny called, all of them gathering beneath the tree Tooth was flying down from. 

  
"Fine, I'll tell you." Jack carefully lifted the four stuffies into his hands, smoothing along the embroidery. "You guys might as well sit down, it's kinda complicated. So, you know how I was kinda alone for three centuries?" There were general nods of agreement all around. "So, you guys might not know this, but apathy was kinda the best thing a spirit could offer me. The ones who really disliked me would generally attack me. I've actually got a bunch of scars from that, but that isn't the point here. The point is, during my first quarter century, you guys were the nicest to me." Jack tugged at the red jacket on one of the dolls. " I was really lonely during those three centuries, but the worst was the first five decades. Around my third decade, I saw a woman sewing dolls. I watched her sew for a few months, until I thought I had figured out the techniques, and then I went to France to find nice fabric scraps and England for embroidery thread and needles. This was the first doll I made." Jack picked up a doll made of yellow and cream fabric with gold embroidery. It had delicate stitches holding it together, a small patch on one sleeve where it had been torn, and what was fairly obviously a lot of work put into the eyes. "I figured that I would need some practice to do North's clothing, Tooth was going to have more embroidery than any of the others, and I didn't have the fabric for Bunny yet, so I made Sandy first. The really hard part was trying to make the eyes right. I finally got it, and then I moved on to the Bunny doll." Jack carefully laid a blue-grey furry doll on the snow, the embroidered bandolier showing up nicely against the fur and the patterns of his fur done in dark grey thread. The eyes on this doll were just as carefully sewn as the other, but where the Sandy doll's mouth made the eyes look wise and knowing, the Bunny doll's mouth made the doll look exactly as Bunny himself had when he told North to 'Buckle up' before taking him to the Warren. "Sewing fur is a lot harder than you'd think, and while doing embroidery on fur is probably a form of torture somewhere, this one turned out perfectly. The North doll was also pretty fun to do, and I have never been gladder not to be working with fur than when I finished it." The doll Jack put down was insanely detailed, from the sleeves on the jacket being rolled up to show the NAUGHTY/NICE tattoos to detail work on the shoes to the eyes being embroidered so it looked like the doll would burst out laughing at any second. Jack held the last doll on his hands for a second more. "The Tooth doll took the longest. It had a lot of detailed embroidery I had to do, and it took forever to find the right colors of thread, but it was worth it." Jack laid this one down too, the doll an almost perfect replica of the woman in front of him. It had each feather a stitch of embroidery, and the shifting colors of her feathers beautifully rendered in ten shades of shimmering blue-green. The eyes on this doll, embroidered as though she was glancing behind her, were as detailed as any of the others despite showing a less dramatic emotion--this doll showed the love Tooth had when looking at one of the Baby Teeth. 

"We hated you though. Why would you make dolls of us?" Bunny asked, Australian accent particularly strong as he spoke.

  
"You guys were the Guardians, everything I was supposed to be, able to protect children. I admired you far to much to ever dream of hating you, and, I guess, kinda hoped that maybe you guys would protect me too." Childish innocence shone through Jack's entire demeanor as he spoke, highlighting how painfully young he'd died. As he spoke, it was as though a knife had been sent through the heart of each of the others present, twisting at the last phrase. "Silly, I know." Jack laughed, gently tucking the dolls into a box and taking the necklace from Tooth, clasping it around his neck so the snowflake rested in the hollow at the base of his throat. He then flew to the top of another treetop, where he began pulling a jean jacket embroidered with silver wings on the back and black roses climbing up the sleeves, not noticing the 'We need to talk about this later' look that passed between the others.

  
***

Once back at the workshop, Jack hugged Phil and gave him a few boxes before grabbing the rest on his own and taking both the boxes and the yeti up to his room. The others sat down heavily, North waving a yeti to bring them some vodka.(While the elves did usually serve, the elves were not allowed to serve coffee[there was an Incident that ended in three yeti being hospitalized], alcohol [especially not gin-elves drunk on gin accidentally perform magiks that leave everything wrong, like that one poor reindeer getting a glowing red nose] or anything flammable [that one doesn't require an explanation. In completely unrelated news, elves are very much not flame resistant, and in fact attract fire like fridges do magnets.])

"We did wrong by Jack." North said gloomily after a couple of shots. There were noises (or pictograms) of agreement all around.

  
"How do we do right by him?" Bunny asks, but nobody seems to have a good answer.

  
Phil grumbled as he came down the stairs, despairing of the Guardians.

  
"Phil says to care for him, to give him attention, and to remember to tell him he's doing well because he's got low self esteem. Also, apparently he likes violet or rose flavored candies. " North translated.

"I can get candies, and lavishing such a sweet boy in love and praise is not gonna be a hardship." Bunny piped up.

  
"It's a plan then?" Tooth asked.  
Agreement was indicated, and the unofficial meeting broke up into four tipsy spirits with a Plan.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, that's a wrap! Sorry about the Cupid and Elf plot bunnies, I've never been too good at keeping to the plan. Please write stuff inspired by my work, I would love to see what you do with it!


End file.
